The Halloween Kids (TV series)
The Halloween Kids is an American/Canadian/Australian TV series that aired from 2000-2004, airing on Nickelodeon in the US, YTV in Canada and Nine Network in Australia. It's considered to be a follow up to the book series The Halloween Gang, and its respective TV special. The show was notable for its strong financial backing, enabling it to compete with more notable YTV shows. The show ended in 2003 to allow time for the producers to find a new animation studio after their previous hiree’s contract expired, and it was revived late in the year, ending in 2004. Nelvana's lease on the characters expired and since Strange wanted to use his characters for a graphic novel, he created a new roster of characters for the next season. Plot In general, the series focuses on The Halloween Kids, a group of children who live in the fictional Woodroot Village and investigate supernatural occurrences and myths, intervening when necessary. Two generations existed, encompassing the show's two seasons. The show focused on a group of kids who are bound together by their love for all that's weird, outcasted because of their endurance in the face of the paranormal and have to contend with multiple differing personalities while putting them aside to work together for the benefit of their town and ultimately the rest of the world. Their biggest connection is that fact that all were born in October, and are descendants of supernatural beings that laid the groundwork for Woodrot's foundation. There were originally 30 kids encompassing all of October's days, who established themselves on Halloween, but following the betrayal of the 20th member, ten were killed and the remaining 19 were separated, having no recollection of their upbringing. The kids have a mixed reception in Woodrot, other kids consider them outcasts due to them embracing their more weird attributes, most adults believe they're a cult (later revealed to be because the kids were descendants of a similarly named demon cult from the Puritan days) and will ruin the town through conspiracy, but they have fans in those they've helped. Each episode had the kids solving problems around the town of Woodrot, usually centering on paranormal occurrences, myths, experimentation or all else in the realm of the supernatural. This season originally lasted until early-mid 2003. Nelvana sought a new animation studio to produce the series and put the show on hiatus until they could find a new studio and allow them time to get used to the style of the show. The season continued until 2004. Characters *'Alison Meeks:' The leader of the Halloween Kids, hailing from Darien, Connecticut. Alison is a spunky talkative girl and the leader of the Halloween Kids. She is knowledgeable on everything obscure or irrelevant to what's currently happening, with a varying payoff. Since she was the first to discover the club's first monster, she had leeway in becoming their leader. She wears shades frequently, implied to occur due to some kind of eye disorder. *'Colleen Dixon:' Colleen is Alison's best friend. Like Alison, Colleen was originally from America, hailing from Denver, Colorado. Colleen is a somewhat shy girl who takes on a deadpan persona when she's forced to interact with others. She often gives sarcastic one-liners whenever the situation demands it. Colleen stuck with Alison because the latter understood her better and is helping build her self-esteem. Both she and Alison were considered social outcasts because of their weird behavior, as well as the other kids needing an outlet to let out their frustrations after getting tormented by the older kids but soon win their respect. Colleen has 12 siblings and lives with a single father, her mother dying as a consequence of birthing so many children within the span of a few months. *'Angela Asbrew:' Tries to serve as a voice of reason and prides herself as having a higher moral compass than the others. However, she is cruel to her younger sister, spurred by her father's favoritism toward her and used to be a prominent bully. Angela is an anti-authority individual, which she keeps secret to avoid causing trouble for herself. She used to be good friends with Georgina, but both grew apart overtime and Angela became more of a loner until she was inducted into the Halloween Kids. She's the niece of the mayor, same with Pamela. *'Dante Ahrens, Devlin Thomason and Damien Gordon:' The school bullies. Dante is the milder of the three and always manages to come up with decent justifications for his misdeeds. Devlin is the slower of the three and is more or less annoying. Damien seems to have genuine contempt for the two and the rest of the world, which the club utilizes to maintain emotional balance. Each have had the worst encounters with Royce and his goons and try to mimic them to avoid further scrutiny, but they move on and become better. Dante is an aspiring cook and Devlin and Damien want to follow in his footsteps. *'Sparky and Brighton Oliver:' Identical twin nerds. They try to rationalize everything with science, but get turned away almost every time. Dante, Devlin and Damien have a hold over Sparky, since the latter maces Sparky when he gets too annoying. Brighton hates confrontation and tries to maintain peace between them and the bullies, but backs down when anyone threatens him. They never had anything against Alison and Colleen to begin with, but sided with the other students in the hopes of obtaining their respect. *'Georgina Sutcliffe:' The school diva. Georgina originally hailed from Yorkshire and was a sheltered, boarding school attendee from a well-off family, until they lost ownership of the school. They moved to New Brunswick to start a new life and their daughter would be forced to attend public school. Georgina is a girly-girl, slightly naive due to her still-developing grip on the middle-class town and was fairly nasty, looking down on people she deemed to be of poor taste. *'Phoebe Corkery:' Georgina's best friend of an even colder nature. Her appearance and social skills conflict with Georgina's standards, but she makes up for it in being much crueler. Phoebe is a manipulative and conniving girl who has managed to get her way by any means possible, particularly to get out of whatever trouble she's in. This was spurred by her being bullied for all of her life, with her pleas for help being shrugged off by people who don't know the full extent of her story. *'Randall Isley:' A business savvy and fairly snobbish boy. He is cold and manipulative, claiming to take down major figures through convincing sob stories and loophole exploitation. Georgina served as his rival since she could see past his farce, though it ended when he joined the Halloween Kids and put his past-life behind him. He tries desperately to get the other kids to follow a set agenda, but his ideas are laughed off. Is a skilled gamer. *'Sam Bliss:' A girl who's into magic and planting and is also a bookworm. It's revealed that she's a witch, but she keeps it under wraps so she could make friends easier and maintain a normal life. Sam is a bit of a hippie, frequently going out into nature and tending to her own greenhouse. She is often the victim of pranks and various annoyances spurred by Devlin and Julie, though she tries her best to ignore them. Sam and Devlin each have a crush on one another. *'Julie Dallow:' A punk girl who often takes the role of a contrarian. She seems to be adamant in looking and acting cool because she was bullied in earlier years, and her style reflects that. She enjoys chewing gum and listening to her walkman and seems to hold a closer friendship with Jerry and Jenny, later Sam as well. Julie prides herself on being brutally honest, not caring what the outcome would be when she states what's on her mind. She was born in New South Wales in Australia and moved to Canada when she was four. *'Jenny Lipstone:' A perpetually naive girl whom because of her slow wit is the source of mockery from other students, which thankfully doesn't hold a negative effect on her. She has a crush on Jerry, which stemmed from him defending her when she misheard something her teacher said. Jenny is a very nice girl, though she's often too nice for her own good. *'Jerry Sandoval:' A cowardly boy with good intentions, seen the most with Julie and Jenny. Unbeknownst to Jenny, he has a crush on her too, namely because he felt she was too naive to see his worst qualities. He tends to be a bit egomaniacal and is very impatient, which prevents him from making any newer friends, but deep down he seeks lasting friendship. Jenny seems to be the only person he could be himself around. *'Mandy Lincoln:' A reserved tall student who's a bookworm. She is very organized and tries to lay down the line in a rational fashion, though at times she takes things too far and winds up making thins worse for the other kids. Mandy has a strong interest in the paranormal and works with Sam more than anything else, even getting some of her books to study in. Mandy wants to become a doctor when she's older, and she tends to the medical needs of the others to prep for it. *'Stephanie "Stephy" Pitchford:' Julie's cousin, from the former's step-mother's side and the first new addition. In contrast to Julie's more punk-like behavior, Stephy is more reserved and is somewhat of a goth, which shows more in her dialect. Julie views her as something of a close friend, and is one of the few people Julie could be herself around. She played a major role in the third episode where she became a werewolf, but was saved before she could be killed by a group of bounty hunters. Since then, she became part of the Halloween Kids (through a technicality) as a counselor. Her previous affliction has made her more agile and athletic, something she uses to her advantage at the most dire of times. *'Marie Kadic:' Tommy's younger sister and the second addition. She was once a very happy girl and admired her older brother, but he betrayed her and sent her into the Digital Zone so he could unleash the Pixel Demon. While there, Marie went through drastic changes, with her body becoming more hulking and her personality taking on a dark turn, leading to her becoming an antagonist who's ordered to stop the Halloween Kids when they try to rescue the kids who were also sent into the Digital Zone. Marie is let out as well due to the Pixel Demon's destruction rendering the Digital Zone's existence redundant. She later applies for the Halloween Kids' tryout session and succeeds after better explaining herself. Marie has a fondness for sweets. *'Becky Talbot:' The third and final addition to the Halloween Kids. Victoria was born on a farm and is somewhat naive to city culture, but she finds her way through constant help from the Halloween Kids. She was the daughter of the founder of the Cult of Wolves and shared her father's misanthropic view of humanity until she met the Halloween Kids, whom encouraged her to give humanity a second chance. Becky kept her werewolf affliction with the intent of using it for good. Under this guise she is more headstrong and arrogant. *'Tiberius Kurt (Lee Tokar):' A member of the school's football team and a seldom-seen member of The Halloween Kids. Tiberius originally appeared in the first episode as an original member, but disappeared and was replaced by Marie. He eventually turned up again and was tasked with doing research on the group's missions, yet he still hardly ever took part in the group's more ambitious tasks. In the last three episodes, Tiberius was revealed to be an ally of Tommy and betrays the Halloween Kids by sending them to the Detendimension so they could no longer serve as a threat to Tommy's ultimate plan. Tiberius turns up in the last few episodes of season 2. Regretting what he did to both generations, he sacrifices himself to take down Tommy for good. Other Characters * Mayor Charles Hubbard (Richard Newman): The mayor of Woodroot, and the uncle/adoptive father of Angela and Pamela. Charles is the most supportive of the Halloween Kids, seeing their worth in their excursions. He once served as a member of an investigative group called the Raven Stakes, until the leader led most of the group into a fatal coup. He wants to prevent the other kids from succumbing to the same fate. * The Raven Stakes: A paranormal investigation team that predated the Halloween Kids in terms of overall function, ran by Charles Hubbard. The original team supposedly died in a coup, but it's soon revealed that they were sent to the Detendimension by Tommy's Father Buzz. One common trait that expanded t Halloween Kids is connections shared between the members, while the first generation of the Halloween Kids were all born in October, The Raven Stakes each had similar birthmarks. **'Benedict (Hiro Kanagawa):' Replacement leader for the Raven Stakes. He acts as the group's troubleshooter and medic. Before he and the others got sent to the Detendimension, he tried to fake the deaths of the other members to avoid imprisonment, but they were exposed and sent there regardless. **'Bing (Howard Jerome):' The team's cook. He also uses his food as a backup weapon. **'Floyd and Boyd (Danny Wells and Tony Rosato):' Twin brothers who serve as the brains of the group. **'Obi (Gene Mack):' A self-aware token addition who makes snide remarks. **'Buzz Kadic (Roger Dunn):' Charles' second-in-command, school principal and the father of Tommy. During the first season, he often served as a minor hinderance to whatever fun the Halloween Kids wanted to have. His disfavor for the kids seems to stem from hints from Tommy. It's revealed that he sent his old investigation team to the Detendimension, done to fulfill a deal he made with the Headless Inspecter that guarded the abandoned cathedral in Hanna, Alberta, but he helps get both generations of the Halloween Kids and his old team out and willingly demotes himself to remedial chores to redeem himself for what he did. * Tommy Kadic: A classmate of the original Halloween Kids, and the older brother of Marie. He was once respected by the other kids back when Alison and Colleen were social outcasts, but after they solved their first case with the two girls, the kids abandoned Tommy especially since he maintained his allegiance to the root of the case. He is an anti-authority zealot and was cruel to his younger sister, which spurred her future characterization. Tommy sought to neutralize every authority figure in Woodroot, something only the Halloween Kids caught onto, but after Tiberius betrayed them, Tommy's plan went into motion and peaked when the second generation of the Halloween Kids were sent to the Detendimension. * The Specter-Getters: A trio of kids who want to rival the Halloween Kids. The leader tends to take everything too far and ignores logical explanations. The three are parodies of the main characters from Mona the Vampire. Episodes Season 1 Season 2